T.A.R.A (THANE AMATEUR RADIO ASSOCIATION)

Saturday, February 18, 2006

ORIGIN OF CQ

Opinions From The Internet Let's turn to page 4 of Baarslag's Famous Sea Rescues (formerly titled: SOS To The Rescue): "By 1904 a number of ships in the trans-Atlantic trade were equipped with wireless telegraphy. The British operators were nearly all landline telegraphers who had left railroad or post-office keys to go to sea in the newly opened field.

They brought along with them not only their Morse code but also many of their telegraphic abbreviations and signals. One was the general call - CQ, which had been used to attract attention of all operators along a wire. It preceded the time signal in the morning at 10 o'clock and also all notices of general importance.

CQ went to sea and became a general call to all ships." A couple paragraphs later, "Early in 1904 the Marconi Company, realizing the desirability of some universal distress signal, filled the need by issuing the following general order: ``It has been brought to our notice that the call `CQ' (All Stations) while being satisfactory for general purposes, does not sufficiently express the urgency required in a signal of distress.

Therefore, on and after the 1st of February, 1904, the call to be given by ships in distess, or in any way requiring assistance, shall be `CQD.' '' " To me, this implies that prior to 1 Feb 1904, some ship did use CQ as a distress call, and possibly her calls for help didn't draw the needed attention. (This was before the twice-per-hour Silent Periods were created - 600m was pure bedlam, and a CQ would have gone unheeded.)

For more radio history, visit your local research library. But please don't make up "facts." (Am I the only one who believes that questions concerning radio history should be included in the amateur exams?) 73, Jeff KH2PZ / KH6

From The ARRL:

The telegraph call CQ was born on the English Telegraph nearly a century ago as a signal meaning "All stations. A notification to all postal telegraph offices to receive the message." Its meaning was close to the present meanings of QNC and QST. Like many other telegraph terms which originated on the landlines, CQ was brought over into radio and used as a general call to all ships by the Marconi Company. Other companies used KA until the London Convention of 1912, which adopted CQ as the international general call or "attention" signal. CQ still means, literally, "attention" but in amateur radio its meaning is perhaps more accurately described by Thomas Raddell who compared it to yelling "Hey, Mac!" down a drain pipe.

ORIGIN OF DX

DX is an early telephone term for distant exchange. "This is correct. In the 1960s I worked in many telephone exchanges around the United Kingdom. On the old-fashioned switchboards with plugs and cords, circuits coming in from distant exchanges had a label marked "DX" above the jack socket. The operator would plug into the circuit and announce the name of her exchange, as confirmation to the distant operator that she was through to the correct destination. 73 de G3NYY"

It is also defined in Funk & Wagnall's as Distance.

The term DX appears in some math formulas as distance of x.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, Phil, K7PEH Physics and Math reports. This may be true in a few very limited areas where the author has penned their own unique definition to dx. However, by far the majority of instances that dx is used in mathematics is to refer to the "derivative of x". As you might know, the derivative of a function is the rate of change of that function with respect to something else. When dx is used in math, it never stands by itself but must also refer to the "other something else" that is changing in respect to x. For example, the following formula: dx = f'(x,y)dy Defines dx as the rate of change of x in the function of x and y with respect to the change in y. I have included the notation as f'(x,y) which is commonly read as "f prime" to indicate the derivative of the function. Mathematically this is not necessary but it is the traditional definition of the differential dx/dy. Since x often is used to specify a coordinate in space, the term dx is often used to represent an infinitesimally small change in that coordinate of x. In this sense you might say that dx is a measure of distance but this is a very limited definition and not the general definition of dx in mathematics. But, even in this limited sense, the term dx is never read as "distance of x", it is always read as "derivative of x".

WebMaster: Note So much for the urban legend of DX is the distance of X -- but makes a good story.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

DXing, QSL cards and awards

Many amateurs enjoy trying to contact stations in as many different parts of the world as they can on shortwave bands, or over as greater range as possible on the higher bands, a pursuit which is generally known as DXing.

On successful conversaton (QSO) radio amateurs exchange acknowlegment (QSL) cards with other radio amateurs, to provide written confirmation of a QSO. Some collect these to keep it as a momento, some collect these for competitions. After all COLLECTING VALUABLES is a hobby, some collect antiques, some collect stamps, some pens and some even collect radios. Ham operators like to collect radios and a QSL cards.

SO NOW WE TALK ABOUT DXing:

What does this word 'DX' mean?

Well D stands for distance and X would be a unknow distance of a station from whom the signals are received. Listening to home town station would not be DXing, but the station thousands of kilometers away in a different country would be DXing.

Most ideal time is the night time when which most DXers prefer. Since FM stations could be heard anywhere in the city DXers are not interested in it, most listen to AM signal thats travels longer distance round the globe after multiple reflections from ionosphere and ground, so easily bending at horizons and covering wider area. As the sunsets the sporadic layer and certain ionospheric layers get active and start reflecting more rays than they would in day and so the signal reception gets better.

The number of operating awards available is literally in the thousands. Amateurs around the world come out of their shacks (their dearest corner in house, where they have their rigs; loving called babies). All move out in field and setup a station at some weird place and start QSO. The place and the operation standards vary as per the DXing competition.

The most popular awards are the Worked All States award, usually the first award amateurs in the United States aim for, the Worked All Continents award, also an entry level award on the shortwave bands, and the more challenging Worked All Zones and DX Century Club (DXCC) awards. DXCC is the most popular awards programme, with the entry level requiring amateurs to contact 100 of the (as of 2005) 335 recognized countries and territories in the world, which leads on to a series of operating challenges of increasing difficulty. Many awards are available for contacting amateurs in a particular country"

Well there was team of TARA present at Elephanta caves they have rocked the world with all the QSO they have had. Here are some of the snaps. Watch and enjoy.

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat.You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
--Albert Einstein